son of Cambyses the Persian, and of Mandane, daughter of
Astyages, king of the Medes. At the age of thirty, Cyrus was made
general of the Persian troops, and sent, at the head of thirty thousand
men, to assist his uncle, Cyaxares, whom the Babylonians were preparing
to attack. Cyaxares and Cyrus gave them battle, and dispersed them.
After this, Cyrus carried the war into the countries beyond the river
Halys; subdued Cappadocia; marched against Crœsus, king of Lydia,
defeated him, and took Sardis, his capital. Having reduced almost all
Asia, Cyrus repassed the Euphrates, and turned his arms against the
Assyrians: having defeated them, he laid siege to Babylon, which he took
on a festival day, after having diverted the course of the river which
ran through it. On his return to Persia, he married his cousin, the
daughter and heiress of Cyaxares; after which he engaged in several
wars, and subdued all the nations between Syria and the Red Sea. He died
at the age of seventy, after a reign of thirty years. Authors differ
much concerning the manner of his death.
2. We learn few particulars respecting Cyrus from Scripture; but they
are more certain than those derived from other sources. Daniel, in the
remarkable vision in which God showed him the ruin of several great
empires which preceded the birth of the Messiah, represents Cyrus as “a
ram which had two horns, both high, but one rose higher than the other,
and the higher came up last. This ram pushed westward, and northward,
and southward, so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was
there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to
his will, and became great,” Daniel viii, 3, 4, 20. The two horns
signify the two empires which Cyrus united in his person, that of the
Medes and that of the Persians. In another place, Daniel compares Cyrus
to a bear, with three ribs in its mouth, to which it was said, “Arise,
devour much flesh.” Cyrus succeeded Cambyses in the kingdom of Persia,
and Darius the Mede (by Xenophon called Cyaxares, and Astyages in the
Greek of Dan. xiii, 65,) also in the kingdom of the Medes, and the
empire of Babylon. He was monarch, as he speaks “of all the earth,” Ezra
i, 1, 2; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 22, 23, when he permitted the Jews to return
into their own country, A. M. 3466, B. C. 538. He had always a
particular regard for Daniel, and continued him in his great
employments.
3. The prophets foretold the exploits of Cyrus. Isaiah, xliv, 28,
particularly declares his name, above a century before he was born.
Josephus says, that the Jews of Babylon showed this passage to Cyrus;
and that, in the edict which he granted for their return, he
acknowledged that he received the empire of the world from the God of
Israel. The peculiar designation by name, which Cyrus received, must be
regarded as one of the most remarkable circumstances in the prophetic
writings. He was the heir of a monarch who ruled over one of the poorest
and most inconsiderable kingdoms of Asia, but whose hardy inhabitants
were at that time the bravest of the brave; and the providential
circumstances in which he was placed precluded him from all knowledge of
this oracular declaration in his favour. He did not become acquainted
with the sacred books in which it was contained, nor with the singular
people in whose possession it was found, till he had accomplished all
the purposes for which he had been raised up, except that of saying to
Jerusalem, as the “anointed” vicegerent of Heaven, “Thou shalt be
inhabited;” and to the cities of Judah, “Ye shall be built, and I will
raise up their ruins.” The national pride of the Jews during the days of
their unhallowed prosperity, would hinder them from divulging among
other nations such prophecies as this, which contained the most severe
yet deserved reflections upon their wicked practices and ungrateful
conduct; and it was only when they were captives in Babylon that they
submitted to the humiliating expedient of exhibiting, to the mighty
monarch whose bondmen they had become, the prophetic record of their own
apostasy and punishment, and of his still higher destination, as the
rebuilder of Jerusalem. No temptation therefore could be laid before the
conqueror in early life to excite his latent ambition to accomplish this
very full and explicit prophecy; and the facts of his life, as recorded
by historians of very opposite sentiments and feelings, all concur in
developing a series of consecutive events, in which he acted no
insignificant part; which, though astonishing in their results, differ
greatly from those rapid strides perceptible in the hurried career of
other mighty men of war in the east; and which, from the unbroken
connection in which they are presented to us, appear like the common
occurrences of life naturally following each other, and mutually
dependent. Yet this consideration does not preclude the presence of a
mighty Spirit working within him; which, according to Isaiah, said to
him, “I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me.” Concerning the
genius, or guardian angel, of Socrates many learned controversies have
arisen; but, though a few of the disputants have endeavoured to explain
it away, the majority of them have left the Greek philosopher in
possession of a greater portion of inspiration than, with marvellous
inconsistency, some of them are willing to accord to the Jewish
prophets. In this view it is highly interesting to recollect that the
elegant historian who first informed his refined countrymen of this
moral prodigy, is he who subsequently introduced them to an acquaintance
with the noble and heroic Cyrus. The didactic discourses and the
comparatively elevated morality which Xenophon embodied in his “Memoirs
of Socrates,” are generally admitted to have been purposely illustrated
in his subsequent admirable production, the _Cyropædia_, or “Education
of Cyrus;” the basis of which is true history adorned and refined by
philosophy, and exhibiting for universal imitation the life and actions
of a prince who was cradled in the ancient Persian school of the
Pischdadians, the parent of the Socratic. Isaiah describes, in fine
poetic imagery, the Almighty going before Cyrus to remove every
obstruction out of his way:--
“I will go before thee, and level mountains,
I will burst asunder the folding-doors of brass,
And split in twain the bars of iron.
Even I will give thee the dark treasures,
And the hidden wealth of secret places:
That thou mayest know, that I THE LORD,
Who call thee by thy name, am THE GOD OF ISRAEL.”
According to Herodotus, Babylon was famous for its brazen gates and
doors; a hundred were in the city walls, beside those which led to the
river, and others which belonged to the temple of Belus. When Sardis and
Babylon were taken by Cyrus, they were the wealthiest cities in the
world. Crœsus gave an exact inventory of his immense treasures to
Cyrus, and they were removed from Sardis in waggons. Pliny gives the
following account of the wealth which Cyrus obtained by his conquests in
Asia: “He found thirty-four thousand pounds’ weight of gold, beside
vessels of gold, and gold wrought into the leaves of a platanus and of a
vine; five hundred thousand talents of silver, and the cup of Semiramis,
which weighed fifteen talents. The Egyptian talent, according to Varro,
was equal to eighty pounds.” Mr. Brerewood estimates the value of the
gold and silver in this enumeration at 126,224,000_l._ sterling. Other
particulars relating to him, and the accomplishment of prophecy in his
conquest of that large city, will be found under the article _Babylon_.
It is the God of Israel who, in these sublime prophecies, confounds the
omens and prognostics of the Babylonian soothsayers or diviners, after
they had predicted the stability of that empire; and who announces the
restoration of Israel, and the rebuilding of the city and temple of
Jerusalem, through Cyrus his “shepherd” and his “anointed” messenger.
Chosen thus by God to execute his high behests, he subdued and reigned
over many nations,--the Cilicians, Syrians, Paphlagonians, Cappadocians,
Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phenicians, Arabians, Egyptians,
Babylonians, Assyrians, Bactrians, &c.
“I am He who frustrateth the tokens of the impostors,
And maketh the diviners mad; &c.
Who saith to the abyss, [Babylon,]
‘Be desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers:’
Who saith to Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
And shall perform all my pleasure.’
Thus saith the Lord to his anointed,
To Cyrus whom I hold by the right hand,
To subdue before him nations,
And ungird the loins of kings,
To open before him [palace] folding-doors;
Even [river] gates shall not be shut:
For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen,
I have surnamed thee;” &c.
4. Herodotus has painted the portrait of Cyrus in dark colours, and has
been followed in many particulars by Ctesias, Diodorus Siculus,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plato, Strabo, Justin, and others; in
opposition to the contrary accounts of Æschylus, Xenophon, Josephus, the
Persian historians, and, apparently, the Holy Scriptures. The motive for
this conduct of Herodotus is probably to be found in his aversion to
Cyrus, for having been the enslaver of his country. The Greek historian
was a man of free and independent spirit, and could never brook the
mention of the surrender of his native city, Halicarnassus, to the
troops of Cyrus. But, allowing that heartlessness and cruelty are too
often the accompaniments of mighty conquerors, and that very few escape
their direful contagion; yet, when the worst is told about Cyrus,
abundance of authentic facts remain to attest his worth, and to elevate
his character above the standard of ordinary mortals. Xenophon informs
us, that the seven last years of his full sovereignty this prince spent
in peace and tranquillity at home, revered and beloved by all classes of
his subjects. In his dying moments he was surrounded by his family,
friends, and children; and delivered to them the noblest exhortations to
the practice of piety, virtue, and concord. This testimony is in
substance confirmed by the Persian historians, who relate, that, after a
long and bloody war, Khosru, or Cyrus, subdued the empire of Turan, and
made the city of Balk, in Chorasan, a royal residence, to keep in order
his new subjects; that he repaid every family in Persia proper the
amount of their war-taxes, out of the immense spoils which he had
acquired by his conquests; that he endeavoured to promote peace and
harmony between the Turanians and Iranians; that he regulated the pay of
his soldiery, reformed civil and religious abuses throughout the
provinces, and, at length, after a long and glorious reign, resigned the
crown to his son Lohorasp, and retired to solitude, confessing that he
had lived long enough for his own glory, and that it was then time for
him to devote the remainder of his days to God. Saadi, in his Gulistan,
copies the wise inscription which Cyrus ordered to be inscribed on his
crown: “What avails a long life spent in the enjoyment of worldly
grandeur, since others, mortal like ourselves, will one day trample
under foot our pride! This crown, handed down to me from my
predecessors, must soon pass in succession upon the head of many
others.” In the last book of the “Cyropædia” we find the following
devout thanksgivings to the gods: “I am abundantly thankful for being
truly sensible of your care, and for never being elated by prosperity
above my condition. I beseech you to prosper my children, wife, friends,
and country. And for myself, I ask, that such as is the life ye have
vouchsafed to me, such may be my end.” The reflections of Dr. Hales on
this passage are very judicious: “Here, Xenophon, a polytheist himself,
represents Cyrus praying to the gods in the plural number; but that he
really prayed to one only, the patriarchal God, worshipped by his
venerable ancestors, the Pischdadians, may appear from the watchword, or
signal, which he gave to his soldiers before the great battle, in which
Evil Merodach was slain:
ΖΕΥΣ ΣΩΤΗΡ ΚΑΙ ἩΓΕΜΩΝ.
“JOVE, OUR SAVIOUR AND LEADER.”
Who this god was, we learn from the preamble of his famous proclamation,
permitting the Jews to return from the Babylonian captivity: ‘The Lord,
the God of heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he
hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem,’ &c, Ezra i, 1, 2.
But where did the Lord, (Iahoh, or Jove) so charge him?--In that signal
prophecy of Isaiah, predicting his name and his actions, about B. C.
712, above a century before his birth; a prophecy which was undoubtedly
communicated to him by the venerable Prophet Daniel, the Archimagus, who
saw the beginning of the Babylonish captivity, and also its end, here
foretold to be effected by the instrumentality of Cyrus.”
5. Pliny notices the tomb of Cyrus at Passagardæ in Persia. Arrian and
Strabo describe it; and they agree with Curtius, that Alexander the
Great offered funeral honours to his shade there; that he opened the
tomb, and found, not the treasures he expected, but a rotten shield, two
Scythian bows, and a Persian scymetar. And Plutarch records the
following inscription upon it, in his life of Alexander:--“O man,
whoever thou art, and whenever thou comest, (for come, I know, thou
wilt,) I am Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire. Envy me not the
little earth that covers my body.” Alexander was much affected at this
inscription, which set before him, in so striking a light, the
uncertainty and vicissitude of worldly things. And he placed the crown
of gold which he wore, upon the tomb in which the body lay, wondering
that a prince so renowned, and possessed of such immense treasures, had
not been buried more sumptuously than if he had been a private person.
Cyrus, indeed, in his last instructions to his children, desired that
“his body, when he died, might not be deposited in gold or silver, nor
in any other sumptuous monument, but committed, as soon as possible, to
the ground.”
The observation which Dr. Hales here makes, is worthy of record:--“This
is a most signal and extraordinary epitaph. It seems to have been
designed as a useful _memento mori_, [memento of death,] for Alexander
the Great, in the full pride of conquest, “whose coming” it predicts
with a prophetic spirit, “For come I know thou wilt.” But how could
Cyrus know of his coming?--Very easily. Daniel the Archimagus, his
venerable friend, who warned the haughty Nebuchadnezzar, that “head of
gold,” or founder of the Babylonian empire, that it should be subverted
by “the breast and arms of silver,” Dan. ii, 37, 39, or “the Mede and
the Persian,” Darius and Cyrus, as he more plainly told the impious
Belshazzar, Dan. v, 28, we may rest assured, communicated to Cyrus also,
the founder of the Persian empire, the symbolical vision of the goat,
with the notable horn in his forehead, Alexander of Macedon coming
swiftly from the west, to overturn the Persian empire, Daniel viii, 5,
8, under the last king Codomannus, the fourth from Darius Nothus, as
afterward more distinctly explained, Dan. xi, 1, 4. Cyrus, therefore,
decidedly addresses the short-lived conqueror, _O man, whoever thou art,
&c._
“Juvenal, in that noble satire, the tenth, verse 168, has a fine
reflection on the vanity of Alexander’s wild ambition to conquer worlds,
soon destined himself to be confined in a narrow coffin; by a pointed
allusion to the epitaph on the tomb of Cyrus:--
_Unus Pellæo Juveni non sufficit orbis;
Æstuat, infelix angusto limite mundi:
Cum tamen a figulis munitam intraverit urbem,
Sarcophago contentus erit.--Mors sola fatetur
Quantula sint hominum corpuscula!_”
‘A single globe suffices not the Pellæan youth;
Discontented, he scorns the scanty limits of the world;
As if within a prison’s narrow bounds confined:
But when he shall enter the _brick-walled_ city, [Babylon,]
A coffin will content him.--_The epitaph alone owns,
How small are the diminutive bodies of men!_’
“The emotion of Alexander, on visiting the tomb, and reading the
inscription, is not less remarkable. He evidently applied to himself, as
the destroyer, the awful rebuke of the founder of the Persian empire,
for violating the sanctity of his tomb, from motives of profane
curiosity, and perhaps of avarice. And we may justly consider the
significant act of laying down his golden crown upon the tomb itself, as
an _amende honorable_, a homage due to the offended shade of the pious
and lowly-minded Cyrus the Great.” These reflections must close our
account of one of the most remarkable characters that ever appeared
among the eastern conquerors.
Astyages, king of the Medes. At the age of thirty, Cyrus was made
general of the Persian troops, and sent, at the head of thirty thousand
men, to assist his uncle, Cyaxares, whom the Babylonians were preparing
to attack. Cyaxares and Cyrus gave them battle, and dispersed them.
After this, Cyrus carried the war into the countries beyond the river
Halys; subdued Cappadocia; marched against Crœsus, king of Lydia,
defeated him, and took Sardis, his capital. Having reduced almost all
Asia, Cyrus repassed the Euphrates, and turned his arms against the
Assyrians: having defeated them, he laid siege to Babylon, which he took
on a festival day, after having diverted the course of the river which
ran through it. On his return to Persia, he married his cousin, the
daughter and heiress of Cyaxares; after which he engaged in several
wars, and subdued all the nations between Syria and the Red Sea. He died
at the age of seventy, after a reign of thirty years. Authors differ
much concerning the manner of his death.
2. We learn few particulars respecting Cyrus from Scripture; but they
are more certain than those derived from other sources. Daniel, in the
remarkable vision in which God showed him the ruin of several great
empires which preceded the birth of the Messiah, represents Cyrus as “a
ram which had two horns, both high, but one rose higher than the other,
and the higher came up last. This ram pushed westward, and northward,
and southward, so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was
there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to
his will, and became great,” Daniel viii, 3, 4, 20. The two horns
signify the two empires which Cyrus united in his person, that of the
Medes and that of the Persians. In another place, Daniel compares Cyrus
to a bear, with three ribs in its mouth, to which it was said, “Arise,
devour much flesh.” Cyrus succeeded Cambyses in the kingdom of Persia,
and Darius the Mede (by Xenophon called Cyaxares, and Astyages in the
Greek of Dan. xiii, 65,) also in the kingdom of the Medes, and the
empire of Babylon. He was monarch, as he speaks “of all the earth,” Ezra
i, 1, 2; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 22, 23, when he permitted the Jews to return
into their own country, A. M. 3466, B. C. 538. He had always a
particular regard for Daniel, and continued him in his great
employments.
3. The prophets foretold the exploits of Cyrus. Isaiah, xliv, 28,
particularly declares his name, above a century before he was born.
Josephus says, that the Jews of Babylon showed this passage to Cyrus;
and that, in the edict which he granted for their return, he
acknowledged that he received the empire of the world from the God of
Israel. The peculiar designation by name, which Cyrus received, must be
regarded as one of the most remarkable circumstances in the prophetic
writings. He was the heir of a monarch who ruled over one of the poorest
and most inconsiderable kingdoms of Asia, but whose hardy inhabitants
were at that time the bravest of the brave; and the providential
circumstances in which he was placed precluded him from all knowledge of
this oracular declaration in his favour. He did not become acquainted
with the sacred books in which it was contained, nor with the singular
people in whose possession it was found, till he had accomplished all
the purposes for which he had been raised up, except that of saying to
Jerusalem, as the “anointed” vicegerent of Heaven, “Thou shalt be
inhabited;” and to the cities of Judah, “Ye shall be built, and I will
raise up their ruins.” The national pride of the Jews during the days of
their unhallowed prosperity, would hinder them from divulging among
other nations such prophecies as this, which contained the most severe
yet deserved reflections upon their wicked practices and ungrateful
conduct; and it was only when they were captives in Babylon that they
submitted to the humiliating expedient of exhibiting, to the mighty
monarch whose bondmen they had become, the prophetic record of their own
apostasy and punishment, and of his still higher destination, as the
rebuilder of Jerusalem. No temptation therefore could be laid before the
conqueror in early life to excite his latent ambition to accomplish this
very full and explicit prophecy; and the facts of his life, as recorded
by historians of very opposite sentiments and feelings, all concur in
developing a series of consecutive events, in which he acted no
insignificant part; which, though astonishing in their results, differ
greatly from those rapid strides perceptible in the hurried career of
other mighty men of war in the east; and which, from the unbroken
connection in which they are presented to us, appear like the common
occurrences of life naturally following each other, and mutually
dependent. Yet this consideration does not preclude the presence of a
mighty Spirit working within him; which, according to Isaiah, said to
him, “I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me.” Concerning the
genius, or guardian angel, of Socrates many learned controversies have
arisen; but, though a few of the disputants have endeavoured to explain
it away, the majority of them have left the Greek philosopher in
possession of a greater portion of inspiration than, with marvellous
inconsistency, some of them are willing to accord to the Jewish
prophets. In this view it is highly interesting to recollect that the
elegant historian who first informed his refined countrymen of this
moral prodigy, is he who subsequently introduced them to an acquaintance
with the noble and heroic Cyrus. The didactic discourses and the
comparatively elevated morality which Xenophon embodied in his “Memoirs
of Socrates,” are generally admitted to have been purposely illustrated
in his subsequent admirable production, the _Cyropædia_, or “Education
of Cyrus;” the basis of which is true history adorned and refined by
philosophy, and exhibiting for universal imitation the life and actions
of a prince who was cradled in the ancient Persian school of the
Pischdadians, the parent of the Socratic. Isaiah describes, in fine
poetic imagery, the Almighty going before Cyrus to remove every
obstruction out of his way:--
“I will go before thee, and level mountains,
I will burst asunder the folding-doors of brass,
And split in twain the bars of iron.
Even I will give thee the dark treasures,
And the hidden wealth of secret places:
That thou mayest know, that I THE LORD,
Who call thee by thy name, am THE GOD OF ISRAEL.”
According to Herodotus, Babylon was famous for its brazen gates and
doors; a hundred were in the city walls, beside those which led to the
river, and others which belonged to the temple of Belus. When Sardis and
Babylon were taken by Cyrus, they were the wealthiest cities in the
world. Crœsus gave an exact inventory of his immense treasures to
Cyrus, and they were removed from Sardis in waggons. Pliny gives the
following account of the wealth which Cyrus obtained by his conquests in
Asia: “He found thirty-four thousand pounds’ weight of gold, beside
vessels of gold, and gold wrought into the leaves of a platanus and of a
vine; five hundred thousand talents of silver, and the cup of Semiramis,
which weighed fifteen talents. The Egyptian talent, according to Varro,
was equal to eighty pounds.” Mr. Brerewood estimates the value of the
gold and silver in this enumeration at 126,224,000_l._ sterling. Other
particulars relating to him, and the accomplishment of prophecy in his
conquest of that large city, will be found under the article _Babylon_.
It is the God of Israel who, in these sublime prophecies, confounds the
omens and prognostics of the Babylonian soothsayers or diviners, after
they had predicted the stability of that empire; and who announces the
restoration of Israel, and the rebuilding of the city and temple of
Jerusalem, through Cyrus his “shepherd” and his “anointed” messenger.
Chosen thus by God to execute his high behests, he subdued and reigned
over many nations,--the Cilicians, Syrians, Paphlagonians, Cappadocians,
Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phenicians, Arabians, Egyptians,
Babylonians, Assyrians, Bactrians, &c.
“I am He who frustrateth the tokens of the impostors,
And maketh the diviners mad; &c.
Who saith to the abyss, [Babylon,]
‘Be desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers:’
Who saith to Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
And shall perform all my pleasure.’
Thus saith the Lord to his anointed,
To Cyrus whom I hold by the right hand,
To subdue before him nations,
And ungird the loins of kings,
To open before him [palace] folding-doors;
Even [river] gates shall not be shut:
For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen,
I have surnamed thee;” &c.
4. Herodotus has painted the portrait of Cyrus in dark colours, and has
been followed in many particulars by Ctesias, Diodorus Siculus,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plato, Strabo, Justin, and others; in
opposition to the contrary accounts of Æschylus, Xenophon, Josephus, the
Persian historians, and, apparently, the Holy Scriptures. The motive for
this conduct of Herodotus is probably to be found in his aversion to
Cyrus, for having been the enslaver of his country. The Greek historian
was a man of free and independent spirit, and could never brook the
mention of the surrender of his native city, Halicarnassus, to the
troops of Cyrus. But, allowing that heartlessness and cruelty are too
often the accompaniments of mighty conquerors, and that very few escape
their direful contagion; yet, when the worst is told about Cyrus,
abundance of authentic facts remain to attest his worth, and to elevate
his character above the standard of ordinary mortals. Xenophon informs
us, that the seven last years of his full sovereignty this prince spent
in peace and tranquillity at home, revered and beloved by all classes of
his subjects. In his dying moments he was surrounded by his family,
friends, and children; and delivered to them the noblest exhortations to
the practice of piety, virtue, and concord. This testimony is in
substance confirmed by the Persian historians, who relate, that, after a
long and bloody war, Khosru, or Cyrus, subdued the empire of Turan, and
made the city of Balk, in Chorasan, a royal residence, to keep in order
his new subjects; that he repaid every family in Persia proper the
amount of their war-taxes, out of the immense spoils which he had
acquired by his conquests; that he endeavoured to promote peace and
harmony between the Turanians and Iranians; that he regulated the pay of
his soldiery, reformed civil and religious abuses throughout the
provinces, and, at length, after a long and glorious reign, resigned the
crown to his son Lohorasp, and retired to solitude, confessing that he
had lived long enough for his own glory, and that it was then time for
him to devote the remainder of his days to God. Saadi, in his Gulistan,
copies the wise inscription which Cyrus ordered to be inscribed on his
crown: “What avails a long life spent in the enjoyment of worldly
grandeur, since others, mortal like ourselves, will one day trample
under foot our pride! This crown, handed down to me from my
predecessors, must soon pass in succession upon the head of many
others.” In the last book of the “Cyropædia” we find the following
devout thanksgivings to the gods: “I am abundantly thankful for being
truly sensible of your care, and for never being elated by prosperity
above my condition. I beseech you to prosper my children, wife, friends,
and country. And for myself, I ask, that such as is the life ye have
vouchsafed to me, such may be my end.” The reflections of Dr. Hales on
this passage are very judicious: “Here, Xenophon, a polytheist himself,
represents Cyrus praying to the gods in the plural number; but that he
really prayed to one only, the patriarchal God, worshipped by his
venerable ancestors, the Pischdadians, may appear from the watchword, or
signal, which he gave to his soldiers before the great battle, in which
Evil Merodach was slain:
ΖΕΥΣ ΣΩΤΗΡ ΚΑΙ ἩΓΕΜΩΝ.
“JOVE, OUR SAVIOUR AND LEADER.”
Who this god was, we learn from the preamble of his famous proclamation,
permitting the Jews to return from the Babylonian captivity: ‘The Lord,
the God of heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he
hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem,’ &c, Ezra i, 1, 2.
But where did the Lord, (Iahoh, or Jove) so charge him?--In that signal
prophecy of Isaiah, predicting his name and his actions, about B. C.
712, above a century before his birth; a prophecy which was undoubtedly
communicated to him by the venerable Prophet Daniel, the Archimagus, who
saw the beginning of the Babylonish captivity, and also its end, here
foretold to be effected by the instrumentality of Cyrus.”
5. Pliny notices the tomb of Cyrus at Passagardæ in Persia. Arrian and
Strabo describe it; and they agree with Curtius, that Alexander the
Great offered funeral honours to his shade there; that he opened the
tomb, and found, not the treasures he expected, but a rotten shield, two
Scythian bows, and a Persian scymetar. And Plutarch records the
following inscription upon it, in his life of Alexander:--“O man,
whoever thou art, and whenever thou comest, (for come, I know, thou
wilt,) I am Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire. Envy me not the
little earth that covers my body.” Alexander was much affected at this
inscription, which set before him, in so striking a light, the
uncertainty and vicissitude of worldly things. And he placed the crown
of gold which he wore, upon the tomb in which the body lay, wondering
that a prince so renowned, and possessed of such immense treasures, had
not been buried more sumptuously than if he had been a private person.
Cyrus, indeed, in his last instructions to his children, desired that
“his body, when he died, might not be deposited in gold or silver, nor
in any other sumptuous monument, but committed, as soon as possible, to
the ground.”
The observation which Dr. Hales here makes, is worthy of record:--“This
is a most signal and extraordinary epitaph. It seems to have been
designed as a useful _memento mori_, [memento of death,] for Alexander
the Great, in the full pride of conquest, “whose coming” it predicts
with a prophetic spirit, “For come I know thou wilt.” But how could
Cyrus know of his coming?--Very easily. Daniel the Archimagus, his
venerable friend, who warned the haughty Nebuchadnezzar, that “head of
gold,” or founder of the Babylonian empire, that it should be subverted
by “the breast and arms of silver,” Dan. ii, 37, 39, or “the Mede and
the Persian,” Darius and Cyrus, as he more plainly told the impious
Belshazzar, Dan. v, 28, we may rest assured, communicated to Cyrus also,
the founder of the Persian empire, the symbolical vision of the goat,
with the notable horn in his forehead, Alexander of Macedon coming
swiftly from the west, to overturn the Persian empire, Daniel viii, 5,
8, under the last king Codomannus, the fourth from Darius Nothus, as
afterward more distinctly explained, Dan. xi, 1, 4. Cyrus, therefore,
decidedly addresses the short-lived conqueror, _O man, whoever thou art,
&c._
“Juvenal, in that noble satire, the tenth, verse 168, has a fine
reflection on the vanity of Alexander’s wild ambition to conquer worlds,
soon destined himself to be confined in a narrow coffin; by a pointed
allusion to the epitaph on the tomb of Cyrus:--
_Unus Pellæo Juveni non sufficit orbis;
Æstuat, infelix angusto limite mundi:
Cum tamen a figulis munitam intraverit urbem,
Sarcophago contentus erit.--Mors sola fatetur
Quantula sint hominum corpuscula!_”
‘A single globe suffices not the Pellæan youth;
Discontented, he scorns the scanty limits of the world;
As if within a prison’s narrow bounds confined:
But when he shall enter the _brick-walled_ city, [Babylon,]
A coffin will content him.--_The epitaph alone owns,
How small are the diminutive bodies of men!_’
“The emotion of Alexander, on visiting the tomb, and reading the
inscription, is not less remarkable. He evidently applied to himself, as
the destroyer, the awful rebuke of the founder of the Persian empire,
for violating the sanctity of his tomb, from motives of profane
curiosity, and perhaps of avarice. And we may justly consider the
significant act of laying down his golden crown upon the tomb itself, as
an _amende honorable_, a homage due to the offended shade of the pious
and lowly-minded Cyrus the Great.” These reflections must close our
account of one of the most remarkable characters that ever appeared
among the eastern conquerors.